Why Do We Feel Like Brothers Especially in Times of War for the Land?

00:00 One of the remarkable things we’ve seen lately, despite all the darkness, all the hardship and all the pain, is this: We’re waiting and hoping for it to end, for the light to finally come—the true light of the complete Geulah. But we also need to look at and reflect on the remarkable things happening right now. One of them is the brotherhood and unity among us, unlike anything in history. We see it before our eyes all the time, more and more: the Jewish people coming together as one people. Until a short while ago, a little over a month ago, before Simchas Torah, there was a feeling of division among the Jewish people—separation, disputes, demonstrations, and all kinds of things we would rather forget, and have already forgotten. Suddenly, it all dissolved into nothing. Where did it go? Nowhere. Not a trace remains; it has turned to dust and ashes. Suddenly we see a united people, entirely devoted to helping and supporting one another, to love, friendship and brotherhood—one great embrace. Suddenly, all the barriers that stood between us just a moment ago have fallen: the barriers between one kind of Jew and another, between someone who observes Torah and mitzvos and someone who does not, between someone dressed one way and someone dressed another. There is an extraordinary feeling of brotherhood. It finds expression in our hearts, in a genuine feeling that we are one people, in a sense of pride that we belong to this people. Despite all the difficulties—and perhaps because of them—we all stand firm and strong as never before. This remarkable unity comes through in the most basic, simple things of everyday life: helping and supporting one another in every way, materially and spiritually, in every form. Even the nations of the world, across the entire spectrum, wherever you look, are talking about it. They all say, “Wow, we didn’t know this was

02:17 the Jewish people.” What is the secret of the Jewish people? People ask. Sometimes we Jews ask ourselves, too: Where does this come from? What happened to us all of a sudden? What brought about this transformation, this sudden revelation of a kind of unity and brotherhood with no parallel anywhere in history? And even non-Jews, the nations of the world, look on and cannot understand it, cannot believe it. How is it that Jews in every country, no matter what kind of Jew or where they are, suddenly share this feeling? You can see it everywhere: Our hearts are in Eretz Yisroel; our hearts are with our brothers and sisters. People are helping in every possible way. Where does it come from? What is the secret? What is the secret? People ask what exactly this is. It comes up in simple encounters I have myself. I live in Argentina and am a shliach of the Rebbe in Buenos Aires. Naturally, we live among non-Jews, and we meet people in all sorts of settings. They start asking you, “How are your parents? How is your family in Israel?” And the most natural response is: What do you mean, my brothers and sisters? The entire Jewish people are brothers and sisters; we are one big family. We’re not talking now about biological parents. We’re talking about the entire Jewish people as one. And they stand there looking at us. What is this? What is this? A Jew has a real, deep and sincere feeling that when it comes to the Jewish people, we are one big family. We are all brothers and sisters. Where does that come from, and what is the secret? Today I want to shed a little light on this, to get to the heart of it and explain this idea of mutual responsibility and unity, this remarkable quality of the Jewish people. And we will discover something remarkable: the unity among the Jewish people has a

04:28 very, very direct connection to Eretz Yisroel. That is why, precisely because the situation today arose from the war over Eretz Yisroel and its future, it awakens the unity within the Jewish people in an even more fundamental and profound way, with the extraordinary strength we are seeing now. We know the teaching of our Sages in Tractates Shevuos and Sanhedrin: The Gemara says, “All Jews are responsible for one another.” There is a verse, “Each will stumble because of his brother.” It is a verse in Parshas Bechukosai, specifically in a passage about times of exile. It appears among the verses known as the curses, the painful verses in the Torah. And suddenly, in the middle of those verses, we find, “Each will stumble because of his brother.” The Gemara says: “Because of his brother”—from here we learn that all Jews are responsible for one another. There is a concept of mutual responsibility. We usually think of a guarantor in financial matters. Someone takes out a loan, and the lender wants to be sure it will be repaid. So he asks for a guarantor, someone who takes responsibility for repayment of the debt. That is a guarantee. “All Jews are responsible for one another” means a kind of guarantee, a mutual responsibility that the entire Jewish people have accepted for one another. When we begin to examine this subject, we find that it is a halachic matter with many very interesting implications in halachah. Of course, as we discussed, there is the concept of a guarantor in financial matters: a person takes responsibility for a debt being repaid, and if the borrower cannot repay it, the guarantor takes his place. He becomes obligated to repay the money. That is a guarantee in financial matters. But we also find very interesting laws concerning mutual responsibility in matters between a person and Hashem, in serving Hashem. For example, there is the halachic topic

06:53 of the blessings over mitzvos. One Jew can enable another Jew to fulfill his obligation to perform a mitzvah or recite its blessing, even if he has already fulfilled the mitzvah himself. He can recite the blessing and perform the mitzvah to enable the other Jew to fulfill his obligation. Take, for example, a Jew who has not heard the shofar blown, and another Jew who has heard it and has already fulfilled the mitzvah. According to halachah, the Jew who has already heard the shofar can take a shofar, blow it and recite the blessing, thereby enabling the Jew who has not heard it to fulfill his obligation. The same applies to making Kiddush for someone who has not heard it. This is a very broad halachic subject. What is the basis for this law? “All Jews are responsible for one another.” Because the other Jew has not fulfilled the mitzvah, I have a responsibility toward him. So even though I have already fulfilled it myself, since he has not, I perform the mitzvah for him and can enable him to fulfill his obligation. That is the mutual responsibility among the Jewish people. It is something remarkable. The sefarim say something even more striking, as related by Rabbi Chaim Vital. Rabbi Chaim Vital, as we all know, was a student of the Arizal—the foremost of the Arizal’s students. He writes in his book about his teacher, the Arizal. The Arizal was a holy man, one of the leading figures of Kabbalah in his generation and throughout the generations. Rabbi Chaim Vital writes that he asked the Arizal about something he had seen: The Arizal would say Tachanun and confess his sins. We say the confession after davening in the morning and at Minchah. Why do you say the confession? After all, he was a true tzaddik. The Arizal had no connection to any sin or transgression. So what was this about?

08:56 Every morning and every afternoon, at every Minchah, he says, “We have sinned, we have betrayed,” “I have sinned, I have done wrong, I have transgressed”—when none of that applied to him. And the Arizal explained to him that this is the idea of mutual responsibility. He explained it, but there is a deeper dimension to it, and here we will go deeper to understand the root of this mutual responsibility. What really is this responsibility a Jew has for another Jew, even when he himself is already doing what he should? Why does he need to think about someone else in these matters? And secondly, there is the matter of sins: because another Jew sinned, I say, “We have sinned, we have betrayed,” on behalf of other Jews who sinned. How do we explain that? The Arizal explains the underlying principle: the entire Jewish people are, in essence, one body. The entire Jewish people are one entity. He explains it more in the language of Kabbalah, but it is very interesting. He explains that when Hakadosh Boruch Hu created Adam, Adam was the only one created as the work of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s own hands. Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself was involved in forming Adam. It says, “And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu breathed the soul into Adam’s nostrils, into his body. This is the pure soul of which it is said that it is “truly a part of G-d above.” As the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya, this is the extraordinary nature of a Jew’s soul: it is truly a part of G-d above. The first to receive this soul was Adam. The Arizal says that Adam’s soul contained not only Adam’s own soul. After all, Adam was not ultimately considered the beginning of the Jewish people. The beginning of the Jewish people came later, with Avraham Avinu. In other words, it skipped twenty generations. He explains that this was

10:53 because of the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. That is why Avraham Avinu received it only twenty generations later. But before the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, when Adam was created by Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Hakadosh Boruch Hu placed the G-dly soul within him. The Arizal says that Adam’s soul contained not just one soul. It contained the 600,000 souls of Israel. In other words, we are not talking about separate individual souls. There is one collective soul, and within that collective soul are all 600,000 sparks of souls. Later, they descended into the world at the time of the Exodus from Egypt, when the Torah gives the number as 600,000. Those souls then divided into 600,000 times 600,000—all the souls that descend at different times throughout the generations. They are all sparks, and sparks of sparks, branches, leaves, and flowers. They are all details and finer details of those 600,000 souls, all of which were included in the one single soul that was originally Adam’s soul. Then, twenty generations later, it passed to Avraham Avinu, the first Jew, and to Yitzchak and Yaakov, who built the Jewish people. So when we speak of mutual responsibility, this is its secret. Why are Jews responsible for one another? Why does a Jew feel for another Jew? Why does a Jew feel responsible for another Jew? Why does a Jew pray for another Jew? Why does a Jew do mitzvos for another Jew, trying to help him fulfill a mitzvah? This sense of unity finds expression both in matters between a person and Hashem and in matters between one person and another, as we said. It is this responsibility that makes a Jew want to help someone else have food to eat, clothes to wear, a home to sleep in, peace of mind, and to obtain

12:59 the things he needs with dignity and peace of mind. This feeling is natural and intrinsic. It is fixed and engraved within a Jew; it is in a Jew’s blood, in a Jew’s genes. We have it because we are, in essence, one soul. All Jews are responsible for one another. But here we come to something remarkable, which emerges from the Gemara in Sanhedrin, page 43, and which is discussed at length in the works of great Torah scholars. The Gemara in Sanhedrin and the Gemara in Sotah discuss this mutual responsibility. Although it seems to be something natural within the Jewish people, when did it become open and tangible, when did it take effect in halachah and in practice? It happened when the Jewish people entered and settled in Eretz Yisroel. The Gemara explains the whole story there. After the Jewish people entered Eretz Yisroel, there was the story of Yericho and its fall, and Yehoshua bin Nun said that no one was to take anything from the spoils of Yericho. Then someone stole something. Yehoshua set about finding the thief—the whole story that Tanach tells us in Yehoshua chapter 7. Later in the account it says, “Israel has sinned.” The Gemara asks: What does “Israel has sinned” mean? Only one Jew sinned. There was one man, Achan, who stole items from the spoils, yet Hakadosh Boruch Hu included the entire Jewish people: “Israel has sinned.” The Gemara says: Seemingly, this had happened before as well. He had also stolen on other occasions when the Jewish people were in the desert, and the Gemara reveals that this man may already have been an experienced thief from earlier times. Why is it only now that it says, “Israel has sinned”? What emerges from the Gemara is that only when they entered the Land did the concept of

15:26 mutual responsibility become complete. The Maharal of Prague explains why: only when the Jewish people entered Eretz Yisroel did this remarkable unity of the people come about. As long as the Jewish people did not have a land belonging to them as one single people, they were more like groups. There were tribes and individuals. Although they had received the Torah in the desert and then traveled together for forty years, they were still individuals and distinct groups. There were tribes, but not yet one people in the fullest sense. Only when they entered Eretz Yisroel and conquered it did it become one land belonging to the entire people. This happened after the conquest of Yericho: Eretz Yisroel as a whole now belonged to the Jewish people. Although it took several more years to cast all the lots and divide the land, with all the events Tanach tells us about, the conquest of Eretz Yisroel in general began with the entry into Yericho. The Jewish people then became one people by virtue of having one land. That is when all the laws of mutual responsibility began—Jews being responsible for one another—and that is why only then did Hakadosh Boruch Hu punish Israel as a whole. And this helps us understand the positive side: this positive mutual responsibility, in which a Jew feels for another Jew and knows that his actions can help him, that what he does can bring good to another Jew wherever in the world he may be. This mutual responsibility, this unity, the sense that a Jew prays for a Jew on the other side of the world and does mitzvos for the benefit of a Jew on the other side of the world—and that these things have their effect—all of this came about when the Jewish people entered Eretz Yisroel and became one single entity. Moreover, the great commentators say that this was not only while the Jewish people lived in Eretz Yisroel. The Maharal of Prague

17:37 He says that even after the Jewish people went into exile, once they had received the Land of Israel, it became theirs forever. They became one unique, united people forever. Wherever we may be in the world, even in times when the Jewish people are scattered across foreign lands, in our essence our place is the Land of Israel. That is why we remain one people, and why the Jewish people are bound together in mutual responsibility. Here the Alter Rebbe offers a very beautiful explanation of this teaching of our Sages. It is told that when the Alter Rebbe began his path in Chassidus, he came to the Maggid of Mezritch, a student of the Baal Shem Tov. The Alter Rebbe received the Baal Shem Tov’s teachings from him, and heard a teaching on the words “All Jews are responsible for one another.” The teaching goes like this: The word “areivim” has three meanings. As we said, it means mutual responsibility: one person is responsible for another. It also suggests a mixture, people mingled together. There is a mingling among Jews. And third, he said, it also means sweetness—something pleasant and sweet. The Alter Rebbe said in the name of the Maggid of Mezritch, in the name of the Baal Shem Tov: A Jew mingles with another Jew. He does not separate from him, cut himself off, or keep himself apart, saying, “I am me, you are you, and we have no connection.” On the contrary, a Jew joins with another Jew and unites with him. There is this mingling, this unity between one Jew and another. And a Jew is sweet to another Jew. One Jew finds sweetness in another: he loves him and looks at him favorably. Something sweet connects them. That is why “all Jews are areivim.”

20:08 A Jew feels responsible for another Jew and will do everything he can to help him. This brings us to the mutual responsibility and unity of the Jewish people, which we are seeing in these days in the most wonderful way. But I want to add another point about this responsibility, this unity between one Jew and another. There are different levels to this unity, different depths to it, and this too is something very, very important to keep in mind these days. Sometimes we can make the mistake of thinking that if we are all one, all one people, then we all have to be the same and do the same thing. Everyone has to be involved in the same work. But that is a mistake. The beauty of the Jewish people’s unity is precisely that every Jew has a particular role, a particular task and a particular mission. Through that, one helps another, supports another, and complements another. That is the true unity of the Jewish people. The Frierdiker Rebbe said that the word “tzava,” an army—everyone is talking about the army. Right now the army is so precious to us. We all see its wonderful work, its literal self-sacrifice day after day, and we are all praying that our soldiers succeed in the war and return safely, healthy and whole. The Rebbe says that the word “tzava” has its simple meaning of an army, of soldiers who fight. But in Lashon Hakodesh it also comes from the word “tzivyon,” which expresses beauty: different colors blending together to create a beautiful pattern. That, the Rebbe says, is what an army means here:

22:33 Not everyone is the same. Each person has a particular role. Every Jew has a particular mission. Some must fight on the front lines and put their bodies on the line to protect the Jewish people. Some sit and study Torah; some need to give tzedakah; some need to pray. There are all kinds of people among the Jewish people, and each does their part where they are. Some need to be in the Land of Israel because that is their mission. Others need to be outside the Land of Israel, in one country or another, because that is their mission. Every soul came down into this world for a particular purpose. And it is precisely this mosaic, this beauty, these colors, that emerge when each and every Jew does their part. But we do not do it as separate, disconnected individuals, saying, “I’ve done my part. I don’t care about you.” On the contrary, we act out of a deep feeling of kinship, unity, and mutual responsibility. A body has many limbs and many parts, but you cannot say that each limb should do its own thing, disconnected from the others. All the limbs work for one body, toward one goal. The head serves the feet, the feet serve the head, and the hands and all the other parts together make one whole, each there for the others. It is essential to understand that each and every person must fulfill their own role and mission, while knowing clearly that their mission serves the goal of unity and brings us toward what we long for: that we are all one people, with one Torah and one land, and we have only one Hashem, whose name is one. And through this, soon—and this is what we need to strengthen in these days. When we see the wonderful love and unity among our people, we need to take hold of it and make the most of it, to understand

24:36 our strength. The Jewish people’s strength lies in unity. In everything we do, each and every one of us should act for the sake of unity and connection. We should feel responsible for another Jew, not disconnect from one another but, on the contrary, come together, be responsible for one another, and recognize what our mutual responsibility means. Through our prayers, each of us wherever we are, through what we do, through our mitzvos and our putting on tefillin, we each help and support the others. In this merit, the soldiers will return safely, the hostages will return safely, and this war will end. And with Hashem’s help, may this unity lead to the true oneness we are all waiting for: “Hashem will be King over all the earth; on that day Hashem will be one and His name one.” May this come to pass soon, in our very days.